The 'Feud' Between I Roy and Prince Jazzbo

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Advance Notice

I am starting this thread to discuss and share the events surrounding the famous 'feud' between I Roy and Prince Jazzbo in the late 70s/early 80s.

This issue has fascinated me for a long time, mostly because the songs that each artist produced while the feud was going on remain classics: they are good tunes, using tried and trusted riddims, musically superb and lyricallly very witty and funny.

I have a good quality tape recording of an old Rodigan show on Capital (Roots Rockers, around 1981) where Rodigan is interviewing I Roy to get his side of the story. I intend, in stages, to upload the interview on this thread, together with all the songs Rodigan played by both artists during the interview.

Another reason the feud continues to fascinate me is that I don't know the full story: why the feud began, how long it went on for, did they ever make up? So, all of you out there, please feel free to contribute anything you know as the thread progresses. I would also appreciate any feedback as to what you all think of this idea.

So, I should get some time over the next couple of days to upload the first instalment. Until then, my best wishes to you all.

Jah Bless,

[jb welda]

i think its all in that roddy show; ive had that on cd for years and its a fun listen. but of course you dont get jazzbos side of things only i roys.

one love
jah bill

[dougie conscious]

no contest i roy killed jazzbo,if you were a jukebox i wouldent put a dime in you,game over

[Shirty Harry]

Good stuff!

[slengteng]

One of them (do not remember which one) was in a studio, chatting lyrics against the other in the mic, but as a joke : he didn't know the tape was recording. The record was issued, and the second deejay was vex. All started there.

[jb welda]

well dougie i am of the exact opposite opinion.

gal bwoy i roy you wear make up.

the knockout punch.

one love
jah bill

[swedon]

..and i am with dougie - no contest.

Have to feel kinda sorry for Jazzbo to be thrown into such a contest.
I Roy did´nt give him much choice thou when he dropped "Straight to Jazzbo´s head". A reaction from Jazzbo would be in order. I´m sure Bunny Lee had some ideas.
Had Jazzbo been a wiser man he would have left it alone. Instead he replied with "Straight to I Roy´s head".
That must have hurt !
Probably not as much as being run over by a bus, as Jazzbo was soon after releasing his cruel reply. Never seriously hurt by that, Jazzbo had to listen to I Roy talk all about it in "Jazzbo have fe run".
Jazzbo was quick to answer with "Gal boy I Roy" where he questioned I Roy´s manhood.

I Roy was a top rankin dj with a lethal mouth, Jazzbo apparently felt otherwise. He just could´nt tell him that in such a clever way. Thats what made the feud so entertaining.


According to David Katz book Solid Foundation, the feud was a marketing gimmick instigated by the manager of Monica´s, the Toronto hairdressingshop that became a serious reggae emporium in the 70s. Have to admit that I have´nt read the book myself, so I don´t know the story.

U Brown gives his side of the story:
"- With I Roy and Jazzbo, to me I know it was a gimmick, beca´I can tell you something; on one of the Prince Jazzbo tracks I was the one who did the introduction on it. Yeah, when Jazzbo seh - I like how I say to Jazzbo: ´Wha´appen Jazzbo?, an´when me a say...I say to him, seh: ´Bwoy, me hear di bwai I Roy a call up yu name, yunno!´An´Jazzbo would say in the song: ´That´s how they stay, they try to call up my name to get promotion!´I was the one who say that. That time I was maybe about the age of 15 or 18 years old, yeah, in King Tubby´s studio. So I know for a fact that it was more gimmick, an´ both a dem was recording the tracks for Bunny Lee at the time, and Bunny Lee was a strong person behind that, influencing dem each others to pull gimmicks on each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah man."

The incident with the bus happend after Jazzbo had been chased by an associate of Big Youth named Trevor´Leggo´Douglas after a thing over some lyrics Jazzbo had sung in a tune named Concubine Donkey.
As mentioned, I Roy put the incident to music in Jazzbo have fe run -

"This incident happen on North Parade
I´m run past Kincaid
I´m couln´t get no first aid.
Jazzbo, wha´mek you do dat?
A serious ting."

[His_Imperial_Measurements]

Two good DJ's and plenty of good records, also don't forget the Jazzbo/Big Youth 'feud'. Though you'd have to be a bit thick to think there was anything more behind it than a couple of pals having a bit of fun at one anothers expense.

What I consider to be of far more interest and relevence is the number of DJs who were hit by a bus, the list includes:

Jah Stitch: (ran under a bus while being chased by one of Bob Marley's 'ah-hem' business associates.

Dr. Alimantado: (No Green Cross Man couldn't save the dopey, half asleep ital doctor. Still, at least we got a couple of decent records out of his unfortunate experience!)

Prince Jazzbo: (So we learn in this thread - or am I getting him confused with Jah Stitch?)

Any others get licked-down/mashed-up?

Inchpinchers

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all for your input so far.

I've done a bit of research and found that this topic has come up on B&F once or twice before, as well as on at least one other forum (I've done so much bouncing around the Internet over the last few hours that I've almost blown my mind and memory!). The general consensus is that the 'feud' was more in jest than serious:

"Basically I think this was the first couteraction thing ever, at least on vinyl. Several replies back and forth.

Those day people didn't call each other battyman. Jazzbo implied that I-roy wore make up because he was such a gyal... "Girl boy I-Roy... powders his face"... Those sort a things...

It was all done in good humor... they realized this was entertainment, not reality." (Jamrid)

"There was no beef just musical war it was a joke between the two of them" (Big D)

"it was about entertainment indeed, it never lead to any physical fights between the two deejays nor their supporters. The feud was straight musically". (Uzzla)

"I Roy and Jazzbo were friends - the feud was simply designed to have some fun and sell some records. The same thing happened in the ska days between Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan - if I'm not mistaken, people took the feud fe real and some fights broke out between fans. Both the Prince and Derrick had to cool things off and show that they were buddies and the records were just for fun. Coxsone recorded a bunch of early Lee Perry vocals aimed at Prince Buster (Mad Head, Royalty, Prince In The Pack, Don't Copy) even though Perry and Buster were friends. " (Mick Sleeper).

Several sources concur that the feud began like this:

"I-Roy explained the entire thing on a radio show with Rodigan in 1981. The fued between the two started when both DJs were in a studio in 1974 and Jazzbo was trying to voice a tune for about 90 minutes but he just couldn't get it right. I-Roy stepped in and voiced his track, Straight to Prince Jazzbo's Head, in one take and in the middle of the song he comments about Jazzbo (the "if you were a jukebox I wouldn't put a dime in you" line). Then Bunny Lee, the producer of said session, fetches Jazzbo and tells him what I-Roy had said on the tune and Jazzbo does "Straight to I-Roy Head" after which a number of tune followed. Derrick Morgan was also involved in it, who recorded
"I-Roy the Chiney Commer Around", which was counteracted by I-Roy with "Hard Man Fe Dead". In this radio show Rodigan plays all the tracks involved. Great selection of tunes! In it, I-Roy says that he started the whole thing as a joke but Jazzbo took it a bit too seriously!

The involved tracks in order of appearance are:

1 - I-ROY - Straight To Prince Jazzbo's Head
2 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Straight To I-Roy Head
3 - I-ROY - Jazzbo Have Fe Run
4 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Gal Boy I-Roy
5 - I-ROY - Padlock
6 - DERRICK MORGAN - I Roy The Chiney Commer Around
7 - I-ROY - Hard Man Fe Dead

(There has been some dispute about the exact order, see below)

Interesting info, I read this from Steve Barrow who heard it from I-Roy himself, about the Kincaid incident mentioned in Have Fe Run and Jazzbo's reply to it, Gal Boy I-Roy is that this incident actually started with a feud between Big Youth and Jazzbo, when Big Youth replied Jazzbos 'Concubine Donkey' with the track 'African daughters'. Then, Jazzbo was downtown one day and got chased by Big Youth's bredrin, Trevor 'Leggo' Douglas. Jazzbo apparently hid under a bus near a place called Kincaid or something, hence I-Roy's remark 'couldn't get no first aid, run past Kincaid', etc.

Wicked piece of JA music history! (BMC)

I know myself from the taped interview that Kincaid's was a chemist shop on North Parade, which led to the immortal line: "Him run past Kincaid/Him couldn't get no first aid/This incident happened on North Parade".

I live for musical moments like these! Call me sad, I don't care!

Anyway, today I'm going to dig out the tape and begin to upload. I'll put up the interview interspersed with the songs, pretty much as Rodigan did it. Unfortunately the tape I have is edited a bit and I might be missing one of the songs. If anyone has a reasonable quality recording of the entire interview with the songs as it was broadcast, please contact me.

Finally, the order of the songs themselves. There has been a dispute about the exact order in which they were recorded:

"Ok - I listened to the Rodigan interview with I-ROY and it's true that Roddy plays the tracks in the following order:

1 - I.ROY - Straight To Prince Jazzbo's Head
2 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Straight To I-Roy Head
3 - I.ROY - Padlock
4 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Gal Boy I-Roy
5 - I.ROY - Jazzbo Have Fe Run
6 - DERRICK MORGAN - I Roy The Chiney Commer Around
7 - I.ROY - Hard Man Fe Dead

but when I listened carefully to the tracks I came to the conclusion that tracks 3 and 5 should change places. The Kincaid incident gives it away! On 'Gal Boy I-Roy' (track 4) Jazzbo says: "If DJ was your trade you wouldn't talk about Kincaid"! I-Roy talks about Kincaid on 'Jazzbo Have Fe Run' (5) so I think it's pretty obvious that Roddy got it wrong! I'd say the correct order is:

1 - I.ROY - Straight To Prince Jazzbo's Head
2 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Straight To I-Roy Head
3 - I.ROY - Jazzbo Have Fe Run
4 - PRINCE JAZZBO - Gal Boy I-Roy
5 - I.ROY - Padlock
6 - DERRICK MORGAN - I Roy The Chiney Commer Around
7 - I.ROY - Hard Man Fe Dead"
(Thanks to Manwel Tabone for that)

Unless people feel strongly otherwise, it'll be easier for me to put up the songs in the order in which they were broadcast, especially if someone can get the whole interview to me. I apologise to the purists!

Right. Enough background. I'll get on with it. For those of you who already know about this, it'll be another trip down memory lane (back to the golden years of reggae and dub). For those of you who are new to this story and haven't heard the songs, you are in for a real treat!

Jah Bless,

[Anonymous]

What I consider to be of far more interest and relevence is the number of DJs who were hit by a bus, the list includes:

Thanks to His Imperial Measurements for the above, which is well worth a read (higher up in this thread): had me in hysterics!

[Anon]

Here is the first tune: I Roy: 'Straight to Jazzbo Head'.

Hope you all like it.

Having played my tape, I realise that it is edited quite severley: I am missing a lot of the actual interview as well as two tunes:

I Roy- Padlock and
Derrick Morgan - I Roy The Chiney Commer Round.

I'll put up what I have of the interview together with the following tunes in the next few days:

Prince Jazzbo - Straight to I Roy Head
I Roy - Jazzbo Haffe Run
Prince Jazzbo - Gal Boy I Roy?
I Roy - Hard Man Fe Dead

Sun comes up, it's Friday morning...have a nice day.

[Junior]

I think the feud was mostly created by Bunny Lee who (like usual) saw a business opportunity. He was the one who put out the 'Kick boy face' (I think that's the one) that includes all the feuding tracks.

[Anon]

Here is the second tune: Prince Jazzbo: 'Straight to I Roy Head'.

Poor Prince Jazzbo: even at this early stage, he was struggling!!

Hope you all like it. For those of you who downloaded the first song, are you getting it ok? What do you think of it? Feedback please!

Can anyone help with my request earlier in the thread - does anyone have a decent recording of the entire interview including all the songs as broadcast on Rodigan? If so, please contact me.

Also, I think I've come across a film interview with Bunny Lee where he talks about his part in the 'feud'. Once I've worked out how to extract it from DVD and upload it, I will!

[Dustbin]

Here's a video of the man, I-Roy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIfWb1n8-ro



(This site has some great old vids, including my favs; Mikey Dread, Jammy and Sugar Minott in London 1985)

Peace

[jb welda]

>Can anyone help with my request earlier in the thread - does anyone
>have a decent recording of the entire interview including all the songs
>as broadcast on Rodigan? If so, please contact me.

well like i mentioned i have a copy of the show in near perfect sound, its just kind of a pain to burn it and send it to you and i dont deal with internet posting of music. but if you cant get it elsewhere send me an email and we can get it sorted out.

one love
jah bill